Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates Affiliates with Berkshire Health Systems
PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates, a provider of orthopaedic care in the Berkshire region, announced it has entered into an affiliation with Berkshire Health Systems.
“Through this affiliation, Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates will be able to preserve and strengthen the availability of orthopaedic services across Berkshire County,” said Dr. Kevin Mitts, division chief of Orthopaedics at Berkshire Medical Center and a surgeon with the practice. “In addition, this agreement gives us critical access to a variety of support services, including assistance in recruiting new physicians and other providers to serve our community’s orthopaedic needs. In fact, two new orthopaedic surgeons will be joining our practice in the coming months. We are thankful to Berkshire Health Systems for helping us to continue to provide the best care possible for our patients throughout Berkshire County, Eastern New York, and Southern Vermont.”
Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates features Drs. Kevin Mitts, Jeffrey Cella, Anthony DeFelice, Mark Sprague, Michael Nancollas, and David Grygier. The practice provides comprehensive orthopaedic services, including surgical and non-surgical approaches; advanced joint-replacement surgery for knees, hips, shoulders, and ankles; specialized hand surgery; and rehabilitation care. The physicians of Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates are joined by a team of specialized physician assistants who are experts in orthopaedic care.
This affiliation helps to stabilize the physician practice and ensure continued and expanded access to these orthopaedic-care services. Growing changes in healthcare policy and in the health-insurance reimbursement system have challenged the viability of private physician practices. At the same time, healthcare systems like BHS are increasingly relied upon to ensure current and future access to critical services for the community by investing in physician practices and ensuring they have the necessary support systems and financial stability and investment to succeed in the longcterm. By becoming an affiliate of Berkshire Health Systems, Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates continues to serve its existing patients, but has the enhanced ability to provide access to new patients through the support of Berkshire Health Systems’ intensive physician-recruitment program.
Daily operations of Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates will remain unchanged, and patients will see no differences in their relationship with their individual physician or the practice. Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates will see patients in three locations in the county: in Pittsfield at its 24 Park St. offices on the first floor of the Crane Center for Ambulatory Surgery building; in Great Barrington at Fairview Hospital, in the Doctor’s Building, 27 Lewis Ave.; and at a new office in North Adams, at the North Adams Campus of Berkshire Medical Center.
This new affiliation continues many years of collaborative effort between Berkshire Health Systems and the surgeons of Berkshire Orthopaedic Associates, to assure the availability of these important services for people in the region.